Rated 5 / 5 stars2013-04-13 04:14:04

Looks like this is all custom-sprite work? If so, that's pretty amazing. Great graphics, great animation, and plenty of love and storyline interweaved with the action. I like the fast pace the animation keeps too, it never slows down too much, not even the part of hearts. It's a creative and crazy adventure. Now imagine this as a real game, that would be amazing. keep it going!

Rated 4 / 5 stars2013-04-12 21:45:27

I love the timing of the soundtrack where light-hearted melodies and exciting rock songs guides the action on the scenes (from enjoying a bonus level to surviving an ambush). And much like the previous episode, you somehow make us love or hate characters in less than 2 minutes of introducing them (Princess Mean for Stage 1 and Butt-Kicking Brunette for Stage 2). I don't know if that comes naturally, but that couldn't have been an easy feat to write. Your release of this episode couldn't be better timed as well with Bioshock Infinite recently released, as I have been yearning for more content with strong female characters who aide the protagonists (or better yet, save them). I also liked the detail with the rifle animations and how once again modern technology (weaponry and robots) are forced into a ninja world, making it both out of place and hilarious.

I am assuming the episodes are smaller to make production much more feasible, and that was a wise decision, but I am putting 4 stars instead of 5 because of certain choices that were made due to this limitation. For example, the protagonist didn't get to use any of his original moveset so the "game mechanics" felt drastically different than Stage 1, and then there's the fact that the female character had no real reason to hang out since she's really getting nothing more than an idiot in return (almost made her seem weaker). Solving those example issues would require additional animation and far longer painful production time, but it would make Stage 2 seem more believable as a second level of the "game."

There was also the forced fart joke mentioned by previous commenters. If it had to go in, then perhaps digging up a more uniquely and possibly intriguing gross fart sound effect on Google may be more effective. So with this in mind, I'll see how Stage 4 fleshes out the story more, where a 4 star would not give the series justice and a 5 star will instead be rightfully awarded. I said Stage 4, because I am assuming 3 is near completion and can't have any content changed nor added at this point (though it may already address any issues I had with Stage 2), and I am HOPING Stage 4 is planned for at some point in the future.

I waited three years for the return of Dan The Man, and it was well worth it. Welcome back StudioJOHO and see you next week for Stage 3.

(I also hope to see the release of the soundtrack one day, because the music at the end previewing Stage 3 is awesome.)